I sometimes handle this problem with the following Perl code:
$message = qq{
|A new service request was sent to an IT representative.
|
|Assigned to: $assign_first $assign_last
|Due date: } . $duedate->string(1) . qq{
|Description:
|$param{-desc}
|
|You can check on the status of your requests from the IT Help Desk
|web page.
}) =~ s/^\s+[|]//gm;
print $message;
--
-David